Brett Brown explains reasoning behind starting Markelle Fultz

Brett Brown explains reasoning behind starting Markelle Fultz

When Philadelphia 76ers coach Brett Brown announced he would be starting Markelle Fultz in place of JJ Redick this preseason, it raised some eyebrows. When Brown indicated the experiment would continue into the regular season, skepticism only intensified.

The questions are fair. The team’s starting five rated among the best in the NBA a season ago. Redick’s shooting ability paired well with Joel Embiid’s presence in the paint and allowed Ben Simmons to operate as the natural playmaker he is. With the expected growth of Simmons and Embiid, it would be perfectly reasonable to stick with the group and see how much better they could be.

“What it does is it lets me try to grow Markelle and bring him along at the start of a game. It’s five minutes — I think it’s not as dramatic as sometimes people do. So it’s five minutes. I’m doing that because I want to grow him. I want to grow us. Can that help us? And I believe that it can,” said Brown.

It’s hard to argue with coach here, as he makes some interesting points.

Don’t sweat the title

First, the Sixers didn’t draft Markelle Fultz number one overall to be the sixth man. They drafted him to be the third piece next to Embiid and Simmons, and the sooner the team knows with certainty whether he can or cannot be that, the better. Get Fultz out there and see how it works.

Second, we tend to get caught up in labels. From our very first forays into sports, we’re taught that “starter” is an indication of prestige. Yes, you want your best players on the field/court as much as possible, and typically they start the game. But as Brown noted, it could be as little as a five-minute stretch to start the game. If games are getting out of hand in that time frame, the Sixers have much bigger problems than Fultz/Redick at the opening tip.

In addition, nothing is set in stone. Just because Fultz starts opening night doesn’t mean Brown can’t change his mind at any time and reinsert Redick. There’s no harm in doing a little experimenting early in the season.

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Believe in Brett

Finally, Brown has much better insight into the psychology of Fultz and his team than any analyst or fan. You could argue that Brown’s willingness to carry the preseason experiment into the regular season should be a major source of optimism for Sixers fans.

After the bizarre way in which Fultz’s rookie season played out, the fact that Brown believes Fultz is ready for the pressure and scrutiny that will come with his starting role is an indication that the 20-year-old is much closer to being the player everyone expects him to be than the one we saw last year.

The Sixers spent the better part of a decade being patient. As Brown noted, it’s time for growth. Starting Fultz has the potential to accelerate that growth, and at the very least will serve as an indication of just how much more growth is necessary.

Before the Sixers can know exactly what the next step needs to be, they need to better understand Fultz’s place in the grand scheme. Sixers fans trusted the process, and now they need to shift the trust to Brett Brown.